Cretan Pottery Decoration

The ceramic objects available for the period under study here (10th-20th century) are chiefly comprised of pots and vessels dated to the 17th-20th centuries, during the Turkish occupation of Crete. During this period, the whole population became progressively poorer and craftworks were very simple.

Pottery decoration spontaneously reverted to early forms which had been discontinued in pottery tradition many centuries earlier.

Flat

Flat decoration involves incision, stamping and colouring techniques, in conjunction with glazing.

Incised

Incisions are made in the wet clay with various tools.

Abstract

A fine wooden comb is used to create straight or wavy parallel lines around the pot.

Geometric

A sharp instrument is used to create cross-hatched and repeated patterns.

Representational

The potter draws various subjects such as cypresses and rosettes with a sharp instrument.

Sealings

This technique uses seals, cylinder seals or stamping wheels.

Seals

Wooden or metal seals with incised decoration are used to stamp the wet clay.

Repeated decoration with cylinder seal and wheels

Incised cylinders and toothed wheels are used to stamp the potter’s chosen decoration on the wet clay.

Coloured

For biscuit ware, Crete has an ancient tradition using mainly a geometric form of decoration, or very rarely abstract motifs. These consist of fine-grained red clay, finely levigated and skimmed, which is applied to the wet pot with a brush or other instrument.

During firing, this slip becomes red to dark brown in colour, depending on the temperature of the kiln.’

Glazed pottery

Glazing made its appearance in local Cretan pottery production in the 12th century, usually for very simple use ware such as rough cups. From the 14th century onwards, typically Cretan patterns (always geometric) and colours were established. The raw material for glaze is obtained by burning lead in a clay pot for many hours. In the end, the slag remains in the form of ash, which is pounded well and mixed with water. The biscuit ware is dipped in the mixture and after firing is covered with a fine layer of lead glaze.

Glazing and colouring

In medieval and Renaissance Crete, glaze was only applied to pots painted or incised with various geometric or symmetrical patterns. The following colours were used:

• the badanas, or basic white slip of the biscuit ware, on which
• the Cretan potter painted green and light yellow bands, with brighter brown spots between them.

Glazing and incising

The decoration typical of a period or a geographic area was applied by carefully incising through the slip to the clay of the pot itself.

Relief

Relief decoration was used on Cretan pottery from the earliest Minoan times, four to five thousand years ago, until 1960, the date marking the beginning of the very rapid disappearance of traditional use ware production.

Relief decoration is created by applying a band of clay to the surface of the moist pot. The bands may be thin or wide, horizontal, diagonal or wavy. They are often decorated with incisions or repeated stamped grooves.

Straight, wide horizontal bands are usually applied to large vessels such as pithoi, at the points where a mass of clay has been added to increase the height of the large vessel. The added bands reinforce these weak points and are decorated in various ways through the ages.